by David Hobbs
For years I’ve had this joke with my wife when I’ve returned home after being out. As I come through the door I announce, “I’m here now, everything’s going to be all right.”
It's such a common perception to see life as being a bunch of out-of-control events that we are always seeking to bring under our control. Things “under control” are good, while things “out of control” are… well, bad. As a painter working off a ladder, as long as everything is under my control, it’s good. But if I lose my balance, or the ladder collapses out from under me (as happened earlier this year), things progress “out of my control,” which always ends in disaster. What happens when a helicopter gets out of the control of the pilot? Safe landing or crash? What happens when an epidemic gets out of control in a population? A great chorus gets out of the control of the conductor? A locomotive gets out of the control imposed by the 2 tracks it rides on? Example after example could be made showing the essential ingredient of being under control and the disaster that comes when that control is lost; so much so that it's bred into our very system and affects everything we do. All our lives are spent trying to assert control over as many factors as possible to make our lives smooth and successful.
The result is that we are constantly at work trying to establish our kingdom on earth, with the explicit assumption that that will make for the best possible good. And yet that flies in the face of the fact that we and everyone else on earth are known sinners, and that all of our motives and desires are tainted with selfishness and sin. How could it be that bringing everything under our control would be a good thing for anyone but us?
The Bible specifically says (in the Lord’s Prayer), “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So we are to work for God’s will to be established on earth, not our own. This means bringing things under His control. There are things then we have to relinquish control over so He can control them according to His will.
This may sound easy, but it’s not. Many people, myself included, can remember being greatly hurt and taken advantage of at times growing up when things were out of our control. Many people have responded by going into protective mode and vowing never to let things get out of their control again, in order to protect themselves from future pain. You know them, people who seem to have an excessive need to be in control, a need based on fear and insecurity.
But what happens when that mindset is taken into spiritual ministry? I’ve been in services where the minister invokes the presence of the Lord, asking Him to come in and take control, saying that whatever He wants to do, we will yield to His direction. In some cases I know it’s false—the minister is too insecure to ever let the service get out of his control. If the Holy Spirit ever took him up on it and came in power, the minister would be the first to freak out and shut the whole thing down. “That’s not the Holy Spirit!”
The result is that we are constantly at work trying to establish our kingdom on earth, with the explicit assumption that that will make for the best possible good. And yet that flies in the face of the fact that we and everyone else on earth are known sinners, and that all of our motives and desires are tainted with selfishness and sin. How could it be that bringing everything under our control would be a good thing for anyone but us?
The Bible specifically says (in the Lord’s Prayer), “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So we are to work for God’s will to be established on earth, not our own. This means bringing things under His control. There are things then we have to relinquish control over so He can control them according to His will.
This may sound easy, but it’s not. Many people, myself included, can remember being greatly hurt and taken advantage of at times growing up when things were out of our control. Many people have responded by going into protective mode and vowing never to let things get out of their control again, in order to protect themselves from future pain. You know them, people who seem to have an excessive need to be in control, a need based on fear and insecurity.
But what happens when that mindset is taken into spiritual ministry? I’ve been in services where the minister invokes the presence of the Lord, asking Him to come in and take control, saying that whatever He wants to do, we will yield to His direction. In some cases I know it’s false—the minister is too insecure to ever let the service get out of his control. If the Holy Spirit ever took him up on it and came in power, the minister would be the first to freak out and shut the whole thing down. “That’s not the Holy Spirit!”
While not everything is the Holy Spirit, one thing is sure: the Holy Spirit will never come and take over while man is still holding onto control—the Holy Spirit will not operate under the direction of man. So until we’ve dealt with our insecurities and obsessive desire to maintain control, the Holy Spirit will never come in the way He wants to.
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1 comment:
This is so true. Sometimes I pause before praying (or singing) "not my will, but your's be done" because I think about what a strong statement that really is! Good word.
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